Wen-Ying Huang 黃文英

b. 1960, Changhua, Taiwan

Wen-Ying Huang’s computerised Jacquard loom enables her to translate complex images into tapestries by rapidly calculating which of thousands of warp threads to lift for each pass of her shuttle. For Searching II (2014), she merged two digital images and used multiple shuttles, holding reflective thread and ordinary black or grey threads—creating a “hidden” picture that can be seen only in torchlight. The scale of the tapestry means this picture is never visible in full. This video shows Wen-Ying Huang at work. After decades of weaving, she says, she too is still searching out new paths.